December 31, 2006

Appropriate clothes or not. Today I decided to wear my hat for the first time… There was a lot of staring on the street, but honestly I don’t mind standing out, after all life is too short to be mediocre.

Peter took this picture of me after I got back, in front of my poster of the 1997 Rijksmuseum’s exhibit “Chapeau, Chapeaux”

December 17, 2006

Aaargh! It took forever!
The fact that the party was cancelled, I wasn’t even here on the day in question, and then took some holidays, did not help speed up the project.
But here you can see a couple of pictures of the finished thing:

The picture is quite awful (I haven’t recovered my camera yet), but you can get a vague idea of the kind of label I’m using.
Some time ago I bought JET TEC Polysilk Adhesive paper (10 A4 sheets, ordering code 3693 JB). No idea if it gets manufactured any more (I bought it at FNAC and they don’t have it any more). It’s a shiny textile with an adhesive backing.
I made my labels on the computer (remember you can print a background color also like I did). Then I printed it on my inkjet printer.
When I first started making these lables I had a problem with the ink bleeding when it got wet (like when wearing the hat with wet hair). I bought something to help with that called PermaFix inkjet fixative. It’s supposed to seal and protect inkjet images against UV and water. This time I have sprayed this on my label, so I should have no problems. One other thing, as you can see I cut it with m zig zag scissors.

It’s not the first time I put combs on a hat, but I decided to improve on the idea this time.
I have taken four wire joiners, opened one side with a screwdriver, and slipped the edge of the elastic cord inside, so the edge sits at one side and the cord comes out in the middle.
I started with a pretty long cord but finally reduced it to 10 cm long (including the bit that goes into the joiner).
The joiner then slides vertically between the stitches of the sweatband, and as you put it in a horizontal position it stays in place. Pretty neat!… and the hat stays really well on the head, you just have to grab hat by the combs, pull them away from the hat, position the hat on the head and push the combs into your hair (pushing the comb from below towards the top)

To keep the cut edge of the grosgrain ribbon from fraying my friend Nina has recommended that I apply a little bit of white glue with the tip of a pin. It has worked really well, it’s not fraying and the glue has dried transparent (and it doesn’t shine):

December 5, 2006

You will wonder what ever happened with the hat I was making for the Catherinettes party (a party that did not take place, by the way). Well, the hat is unfinished and will have to wait until I get back from my holidays.
Not much left to be done, the ribbon needs to be well sewn, but other than that it’s practially ready.
Another story is what clothes to wear with it (a lesson to be learned… always choose first the outfit and then make the hat to match it).

But first things first. I started by cutting the approximate length of grosgrain needed (the only color I had, dark brown-grayish), and I’ve put it under running water a moment to get it wet.
I have a piece of ironing board cover that I use on top of my kitchen table when I need to iron something and I don’t want to take out the board. By putting the iron tip on one end of the ribbon and pulling at an angle you get the ribbon to take a semi-circle shape, which helps adapting the tape to the tapering shape of the inside of the hat.

Afterwards I have put the ribbon on the hat and pinned it to get an idea of where I want it to go. Because there are visible stitches on the inside where crown and brim have been sewn together, I don’t have much of an option about where to put it though.
I have slip stitched where the ribbon meets (one end of the ribbon stays flat while the other end folds over at the center back). Then the hard part, stitching the ribbon. I have sweated with (more…)

November 17, 2006

My friend Nina emailed me today to say that the party was not going to take place. She wanted something with a lot of people, the press, etc, but it was too late to organize all that.

I am really disappointed because it was this party that had brought me back to making hats 🙁

I guess we will still go out for drinks with our hats… but I’ve been doing some shopping to find an appropriate retro-looking suit to go with my (yet unfinished) hat, and I have found nothing, so between one thing and the other my spirits are very low.

But I will finish the hat, and I will go on with the blog, don’t worry!

November 15, 2006

This is only the first stage. I’ve started attaching the bown to the hat through the knot part. My plan of tie-tack stitch was a bad one because the knots on the underside would be visible, DUH! So I’ve started stitching, with double thread, starting at the top side, hiding the stitches under the pleats. On the underside it’s not visible because I come in on the same place that i came out.

This is a preliminary view, but I will try to make it look better (and make it stay in place):